I was watching a youtube multi-angle video of Phelps, and something really struck me. Aside from loping a bit, he had a half-catchup stroke on one side, but more of a rotary stroke on the other. It might be because he's breathing to the one side and takes extra time to get a good breath. I'm curious if any of you have similar asymmetry to your stroke. Here's the link, you'll see it best on the side view.
www.youtube.com/watch
Woah. I've been watching that video over and over the last few days and I noticed the same thing! Freaky-deaky. I just figured it's because of his constant breathing.
I also noticed he keeps his arm out there for a while before withdrawing it (is that loping? hm, nvm, it's not). And when he withdraws an arm, it slides underneath his lower torso. Of course, both of those things could be pretty elementary or automatic.
edit: the flipturn and backstroke videos of Phelps by that same submitter are excellent, as well.
Yeah he lopes quite a bit, and a lot of others do too. Popov had that kind of stroke, even on a 50 with his head down. Lezak and Prilukov swim very asymmetrically. I've been told that I do too. My teammates sometimes make fun of it.
You can't legally get fully submerged.That is unlikely to happen unless you really exaggerate front quadrant swimming,as one arm should be out of the water at all times,but after the first 15 M,some part of your body must break the surface in free at all times.
Actually, that's partially correct. ONCE you surface off the start or turn, some part of your body must be at or above the surface of the water at all times. So by rule, if you surface at the 5m mark and then completely submerge again, you should be DQed.
It seems like one intention of the "lope" is to get fully submerged, even momentarily, where there are less drag losses. Just a hunch.
You can't legally get fully submerged.That is unlikely to happen unless you really exaggerate front quadrant swimming,as one arm should be out of the water at all times,but after the first 15 M,some part of your body must break the surface in free at all times.
